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Non Est Asylum
Recap In Northern England, at an asylum, John Constantine is strapped to a table. He tells them to strap him down tighter. A mouth guard is put into his mouth and they start electro shock therapy. He narrates and says he’s an exorcist and came there voluntarily. He says in his line of work, sometimes you just need to forget. We see him sitting in a psych ward. He watches a metronome as the doctor asks him about the night in Newcastle when a girl was killed. John says he’ll never forget that demon. The doc says he’s turned her killer into a manifestation of evil because of his guilt. He says they are all powerless against evil and John says not everyone. Dr Huntoon asks him about listing Master of the Dark Arts on his business card. John says he should take off master so it doesn’t seem he’s putting on airs. John says the girl’s name was Astra and says he can handle her death okay but not her being dragged to hell for all eternity. Dr. Huntoon says there are no demons and John tells him to make him believe that. In group therapy later, a man talks about his OCD rituals. John stares at the ceiling then notices a bug on the floor. Then another and another. He gets up to follow the stampede of insects on the halls and floors of the ward. There are dozens, then hundreds. John trails after them and follows them up the stairs and into the art studio. He tells the woman painting on the wall she needs to stop. The bugs are all around her and here eyes are almost totally white. He says this is not his problem then relents and asks the demon’s name inside her. He begins an exorcism. The beast in her screams and he has to knock her to the floor while she convulses. She destroys the room and blows out the windows with her powers then the demon is gone. She panics and asks what happened. He tells her a spirit took her body for a spin – he says to send him a message. The wall reads LIV DIE. He walks out and sees a crowd of nutters and the doc there and tells them coolly – she did it. In Atlanta, Liv Aberdine is at her desk. She talks to a co-worker. They eat Chinese and she tells him to add “in bed” to the end of your fortune cookie. She finds hers blank and says she must have no future. She heads out and gets in her car after leaving work. He lights flicker as she goes. She backs out of her space but her backup warning on her car goes off but there’s nothing showing. She gets out and looks behind her car. She crouches down and we see her on the backup camera. Her engine revs and she screams then all the power on the car dies. She gets back in her car and tries to crank it but it’s completely dead. All the lights around her go out. As she walks through the lot, light after light goes out and the asphalt begins to crack leading up to her. It splits under her feet and she rolls away. There is suddenly a pit before her and fire shooting out of it. She runs screaming and a cab pulls up. John hops out and asks if she needs help. She points mace at hm and he points out she’s holding it backwards. He tells her that he’s not the danger. He tells her she’ll be dead by morning if she won’t listen. She says she’ll call the cops and he says they can’t help. He hands over her card and she scoffs as Master of the Dark Arts. He says he’s getting new cards made. He goes down into the put and tells the demon he’s a nasty piece of work and he should be careful. An angel shows up, says his name is Manny, and he’s been told to watch over him. John says that’s no good for his reputation. John tells him to flap off and Manny reminds him that he damned a girl and his own soul to hell. He says he can ease his suffering but John isn’t having it and says he can handle a demon attack but Manny says he’s been out of the game for a while and that something big is on the way. Manny says he has to go and flies away while John calls out asking what’s on the way. Liv gets a ride home from her neighbor Talia. She tells her about John and her friend says he sounds rapey. Someone follows them into the building. Liv heads into her apartment. The guy pulls a knife and touches her door. She opens her other fortune cookie and it reads “Trust Him.” The lights flicker in the hallway and Talia’s laptop blinks. An arcane symbol appears on the door the guy was touching. Talia’s light bulb explodes, she screams and turns to look. A red eye appears on her laptop scream briefly before it blacks out. Later, Liv wakes to helicopters and lights. In the hall, a cop tells her it’s an active crime scene. She sees her friend dead then notices the symbol on her own door. Talia’s body is in the back of the coroner’s van and it starts rattling around in its bag. The driver stops and goes back to investigate the noise. The bag starts twitching and he says to hold tight and he’ll get her out. Talia is now a white eyed creature and she attacks the man. He screams. Liv is dropped of by a cop and John asks why she car pools with a cop. She shows him the symbol on her door and he says it’s the Eye of Horus and protects you. She says there was a man in the building last night she thinks killed her friend. He introduces the cab driver Chas and says he was the man in her hall and carved the symbol that saved her life last night. He gets back in the cab and Liv asks why someone wants her dead. She says she’s nobody but he says she’s not and he knows her dad – Jasper Winters and says he’s supposed to look out for her. She says her dad died before she was born but he says no, he died just last year. He hands her a bag and says his dad left it for her. Before she can open it, the coroner’s van smashes into her office and runs over her desk. He says whoever it is must be tracking her energy. They hear a weird noise and find Talia in bad shape. She says her friend is still alive but he says she’s not and it’s odd that they’re operating in the open like this. The sign on the wall goes up in flames as he yells out who are you and when he turns back, Liv is gone – she’s run off. She’s at her mom’s demanding answers about her dad but her mom doesn’t want to talk about. She says she met him at a concert and never wanted to see her. Liv holds out the necklace from the bag and says her dad left it for her. But then she sees her dead nana with bloody eye sockets leaking goo from her mouth. John and Chas show up at the house and he tells her she’s just waking up to her abilities. He grasps her hands and tells her to look around. The world goes to black and white and she sees people. He tells her they are souls trapped. He says he can’t see them and asks what else she can see. She says there is a train coming straight at them but he grabs her and won’t let her off the tracks. She screams and the train runs through them. He laughs and she asks what happened. He says it’s ghost train. He says she has her father’s gift for seeing these things and says the necklace focuses the power. He tells her to come with him and Chas and they hop in the taxi and take off. John sleeps so she asks Chas about her dad and how he died. Chas says he died bravely and John works. She wonders if whatever is after her is looking for revenge for something her dad did. John says he doesn’t care why he just wants it down. The car goes nuts as do the traffic lights and it goes flying. John has a flashback to Astra being taken by the demon. He wakes to Liv’s screams. She’s calling for him to help. They crashed into a power pole and a power wire is loose and waving like a snake trying to get to Liv. He does an exorcism spell on the power line and it chills out. He tells Chas to get her out and he does. He sets her down and Liv runs to John. They scream for Chas to watch out as the power line comes back to life and stabs itself through his chest from the back and comes out the other side bloody and still sparking. John and Liv walk through the woods and he tells her they have to figure out which demon has her marked for death. She reminds him Chas is dead and he says things aren’t as they seem. He says he promised her dad if the day came, he would put these keys in her hands. He hands them to her and says the house was her dad’s. It’s a stone cottage. He takes her down into it then below it and there is a room full of arcane stuff. He says her dad used it for divination. She picks up a dusty helmet and he warns her it can hurt her. She sets it down. She looks at an ancient map of Atlanta and asks what these things are that her dad drew on. He says she can see things to by holding her pendant over the map. He tells her Furcifer is the likely culprit because he draws strength from electricity. The pendant pricks her hand and he tells her to let it drop on the page. She does and the drops run to Edgewood Avenue. John says something bad will happen there and she wants to stop it, but he wants to take care of her tormenter. He says they have to keep her safe. John pulls up at Ivy University and the guard stops him – it’s Manny – he asks him to open the gate and says this is time sensitive. Manny freezes time and John tells him an inner circle demon is hunting her. Manny says if he can figure this out he can use the knowledge to save lives. John reminds him his kind condemned him to hell and asks why he should help. Manny chews him a new one and says he’s damned and that’s why he should spend the time he has left helping. Manny dangles a hint that he may be able to save his soul then he’s gone and the real guard is there. He asks if John is okay and he says – not even slightly. Ritchie is in his university office when John comes in. He yells at John to get out and John tells him he heard something big is on the way. Richie says he has been investigating and asks if he tells him, will he leave. John tells him about the demon stalking Liv. Ritchie says Newcastle nearly ruined him and says he takes a pile of pharmaceuticals to get through the day. John says it would be a shame if the cops knew he was there and reminds him he has no alibi for that night. Ritchie says he wishes it would have been him and they had taken him instead. John says that makes two of them. Liv is in her dad’s place and she sees someone in the mirror. She gasps, but the guy isn’t really there. When John comes in she tells him she saw him and he says she was watching the past and says it was her dad Jasper. He has clothes from her apartment and then Chas is there and she screams. She says he died and he says it’s complicated. John says he has survival skills but she says no one could survive that. He says Chas is making rack of lamb then they’re going demon hunting. Later, John pays off a security guard to give them roof access to have sex. He also gives him an extra hundie and hands him a light bulb and says to call if it lights up. The guy says it’s not screwed into anything and John says he’s not either. On the roof, John draws a circle with symbols all around and explains he designed it to trap demons. He says Furcifer will have to come in to get her and then he can send it to hell. The security guard is playing a video game and doesn’t notice the lightbulb. On the roof, Liv asks John about himself but he’s not forthcoming then caves and says his mom died as he was born and says his dad blamed him, called him killer and beat him regularly. John says he started studying the occult to try and raise her but says he hasn’t yet. The security guard comes up and they try to warn him it’s not safe but then quickly realize it’s not him, but Furcifer. John tells the demon to come and get her if he wants her. He comes to the edge of the circle and then steps through it. John flips a power grid then starts an exorcism spell. The demon melts down and then rises again looking like John himself only creepier. Furcifer says the little girl told him his incantations lacked intention. The demon asks if he likes looking at his future and John ass it’s disconcerting. He tells John it’s is night to die. The demon grabs some electricity and tries to knock her out of the emblem. She’s barely hanging on. Furcifer is feeding off all the electricity and says all who stand with him tonight die. John says he forgot and shoots off a flare gun. This signals Ritchie who shuts down the power grid. John lights the symbol in fire and drags Liv out of it. The demon brings Talia forward and tells him if he releases him, he’ll let her soul free. John tells Liv he’s sorry and starts an incantation to release him but Liv tells him to stop and says it’s not Astra – she sees through the glamor. John tells Furcifer he’s coming for Astra and then Nergal and says he can pass that along in hell. He completes the exorcism ritual as the fake Astra screams and calls his name. The demon goes up in flames then it’s all still. John collapses and Liv asks if he’s okay. John tells her his colleague will drive her home. He chastises her to go as he sits in anguish over Astra. She asks Ritchie who Astra is and he says a daughter of a friend of theirs who was possessed. He says John conjured a greater demon – Nergal – to take the other demon away but instead Nergal ripped her apart and took her soul. They are on Edgewood and Liv tells him to stop and tells him about the scrying. They do and she sees a mom crying over her son who had been murdered. John and Chas are at a bar drinking and debating music. Chas says Liv came by the mill house and said she was going to California. She left the pendant with him for John who says he guesses not everyone can do it. John says he’ll put a cloaking spell on her. Chas pulls out the map and says she spent an hour scrying before she left. He unfolds the map and shows him blood splots all across the country. Chas says she wants him to keep fighting and says if he wants to give Astra’s death some meaning he’ll do this. He orders another drink and Manny serves it up. He says it’s interesting that Ritchie drove way out of his way to show Liv the scene on Edgewood and says he scared her away on purpose. Manny says they need her power for the fight but John says he had to give her the choice. Manny says he called it “our” fight and asks if he’s going to help. John says that’s what they wanted right and tells Manny to pick up the bar tab since they’ll be owing him. John narrates again and says he steps on shadows with his trench coat and arrogance and beat demons then spits on them. He walks down an alley and is surrounded by armed men. He conjures fire from his hands and says he walks this path alone and asks who would be crazy enough to walk with him. We see a woman sketching the scene at a harried pace. She sits on the floor of a room where the floors and walls are all covered in sketches of John and his demon fighting activities.